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1 52 Bibliography. 



herst College, and Professor of Natural Theology and Geology, (from 

 the Transactions of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2d 

 ser., vol. iii, Boston, 1848.) — This elaborate memoir extends to 128 

 pages quarto, and is illustrated by 24 plates, together with a large table, 

 giving a general view of the distinctive characters of the species. The 

 learned author has pursued the course usual in palaeontology, of distin- 

 guishing the genera and species of the animals indicated by the fossil 

 remains and naming them accordingly. Although the remains are but 

 footmarks, they point out, under the guidance of the unerring principles 

 of comparative anatomy, the habits of the several animals, the classes 

 to which they pertain, and the peculiarities, to some extent, of the 

 species. These characters have been seized, and upon them the de- 

 scriptions and names are based. Fifty-one species are included in the 

 memoir, 12 of which are of quadrupeds, 4 probably of lizards, 2 che- 

 lonian, 6 batrachian, 2 annelids or molluscs, 34 bipeds, 3 doubtful ; and 

 of the bipeds 8 were thick-toed tridactylous birds, 16 were narrow toed 

 tridactylous or tetradactylous birds, 2 were batrachian, and the remain- 

 ing 8 either birds or reptiles and probably the latter. We have to defer 

 to our next number a farther account of the genera and species. 



5. Additional observations on a new living species of Hippopotamus 

 of Western Africa; by S. G. Morton, M.D., Penn. and Edinb., Vice 

 President Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, (from the Journal of the Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. of Philadelphia, vol. i, 2d series,) 12 pp. 4to, with 3 plates. 

 Philadelphia, 1849. — This new species of Hippopotamus was first 

 described by Dr. Morton in the Proceedings of the Academy for Feb- 

 ruary, 1844, and there named H. minor * As this name was previ- 

 ously used by Cuvier for a fossil species, it is now changed to Hippopo* 

 tamus (Tetraprotodon) Liberiensis. The animal is slow and heavy in 

 its motions and weighs 400 to 700 pounds. It lives on the river St. 

 PauPs, a stream that rises in the mountains of Guinea and passing 

 through the Dey country and Liberia, empties into the Atlantic to the 

 north of Cape Messurado. The description of the animal by Dr. Mor- 

 ton, is drawn from the two skulls in his possession, the only specimens 

 which have hitherto been brought from the African coast. 



6. On the nature of Limbs. A discourse delivered on Friday, Feb. 



9th, at an evening meeting of the Royal Institution of Great Britain 

 By Richard Owen, F.R.S. London, 1849. — This discourse consists 

 of two portions; in the first of which is demonstrated the " unity of 

 composition" of the limbs of vertebrated animals, their various forms 

 being in accordance with their diversified uses. The paddle of the 

 whale, the short but powerful arm of the mole, the wing of the bat, the 

 fore-leg of the horse and the arm of man, being but modifications of 

 the same typical limb. In all, there exists a shoulder, an arm, a fore- 

 arm and hand ; the latter may be provided with its five fingers, as in 

 man and many animals, or it may have a single finger, as in the horse 

 and the apteryx. If the limb form simply an organ of support and of 

 locomotion, then the hand exists in the simple condition of the "fore- 

 foot" of the horse ; but if it be prehensory or tactile, it approaches 

 more or less in its conformation, the hand of man. These are views 



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